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Ukraine’s Fall 2022 & Spring 2023 Counteroffensives — A Brief Comparison
The last successful counteroffensive Ukraine launched in Fall 2022 caused significant losses for the Russians.
But times have changed. Presently, the conditions are entirely different. Russians have had months to prepare. And prepare they certainly did.
Let me explain.
The Fall 2022 offensive was important and took most analysts by surprise. It focused on Kherson because of the strategic importance the Black Sea has to the export of grain and wheat from Ukraine, among other resources.
We all know now that the war significantly disrupted supply chains. And the Kherson oblast has been in Russian hands since March 2023, when most of their territorial gains were made by surprising Ukraine with a massive land invasion.
During Ukraine’s Fall 2022 counteroffensive, there were significant advancements made in the Kherson oblast, but it was nowhere near as close to the advancements in and surrounding Kharkiv.
Most of us remember that in the two weeks or so of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Fall, Ukraine managed to recapture more than 6,000 square kilometers.
To put that number into context, that would be almost 3x as much as the area of Luxembourg. Some other estimates put…
